ABC doco on Fran Bodkin

The ABC TV documentary on Fran Bodkin will be broadcast this Sunday 15th August at 1:30 PM on ABC1. This program will then be repeated on ABC1 the following Saturday at 11:30AM & will go online this Monday at   www.abc.net… Fran lives, breathes, talks Australian plants, animals and indigenous history. And Fran has inspired me every single time we’ve spoken.  Her knowledge brings me to silence as I listen and contemplate things right in front of me that, until... Read More

Laying local is city news

The latest issue of one of Sydney’s  inner city newspapers, City News, has a beaut photo of one of the chooks here, Bob, on the front cover.  That chook; there’s no holding her back. It’s part of a story about the Walk Against Warming on Sunday 15 August, this weekend, and the story is called, Laying local. You can find it here: www.altmedia.net… Or if you wish to download the paper  - be warned, it’s 9.2 MB – it’s here: www.altmedia.net… Good... Read More

What we did in the road gardens today

Irrigation pipes and comfrey plants Today Karlie, Kath, Rachel, John and Alina worked in the road gardens. We: cleaned the outside of the seven bins in Peace Park cleaned the outside of the six bins in the streets augured all bins and mixed in the fluffy coffee husks from Toby’s Estate one bin in Rose street needed compost from the base of the bin dug out and put on top to make it less smelly and drier had a little pruning workshop on one citrus and the first tentative... Read More

Villages support us most

This week’s column from George Monbiot provides a useful summary with data of the benefits of villages, some of which we’re experiencing in Chippendale’s village-like streets. Here’s some of George’s column: “We are, to a surprising extent, what the built environment makes us. Academic papers show that many of the problems we blame on individual behaviour are caused in part by the places in which we live. People are more likely to help their... Read More

A loss in the street

Two fruit trees (bush lemons) and a native planted to feed and shelter small birds were stolen from our road garden in front of the units at the corner of City Road and Myrtle sometime since last Sunday. Sad to see the empty holes where they’d been pulled out.  It looks as tho’ someone’s stealing them to sell not to vandalise. I try to let pass the hurts of theft, death and vandalism of our plants. And to try for the road gardener’s laugh, and these words,... Read More

Food Connect’s record for July

Food Connect, the fruit and veggies box service for which I’m a volunteer City Cousin (ie folks can collect their boxes from my house) has just sent their monthly report for environmental and social impacts and in summary: -  over the month of July the social and environmental impact has been: Households/week: 180 City Cousins: 19 Price to farmers: 40c/$ Organic or chemical free: 100% Food miles: 212 km For more information:   sydney.foodconnect.com… To see if... Read More

The little house that could

No rain water or stormwater has left Sydney’s Sustainable House in the storms this year. So far, in 14 years, the house has: kept over 1.5 million litres of sewage here in a garden some 3 square metres produced such high quality and low quantity sewage that a leading soil expert says the garden’s good for another couple of decades of sustainable water use like the last 14 years stopped over 112 tonnes of greenhouse gases polluting Earth’s air left over 1.5 million... Read More

Summary of sustainable housing red tape

There’s a summary of laws, rebates, incentives and government-generated red tape to promote sustainable housing in Queensland, NSW and Victoria here:   www.thefifthestate.com… Remember to hold a ball of string as you enter.  While it’s a beaut summary it can’t overcome the avoidable complexity governments have created for those wishing to go sustainable.  And it will be out of date in a month or two. M  Read More

Seedling pots you can plant

Rachel, John, Karlie putting seeds into loo rolls Avoid transplanting small plants; to do this use loo paper rolls as seedling pots.  They will decay in the soil and protect the young seedlings until then. Plant seeds in the loo pots, rope them together with string and place in a cardboard tray that you put in good sunlight.  Water them all at once.  Leave in sunlight ’til big enough to plant. When ready to plant bury the seedling pot into the soil where it will decay... Read More

Ten things you can do today in your road garden, and do no harm

I’ve written about some easy-to-do things in our streets to grow food in a column called, Bathurst Burr, in the online magazine, The Fifth Estate, here:   www.thefifthestate.com… Maybe one or two of those ideas might work for you? Just a thought, M  Read More